The Bears haven’t made a move this big for a defensive player since Khalil Mack arrived in 2018. General manager Ryan Poles sent first-round picks in 2027 and 2028 plus a 2027 fourth-rounder to Tennessee for Jeffery Simmons and a 2028 fifth. ESPN Research says it’s the first time since 1967 that a defensive tackle has been traded for multiple first-rounders.
Pricey? Sure. But one game in, nobody inside Halas Hall is sweating the receipt.
Simmons played 48 of 56 snaps in Monday night’s 34-17 win at Seattle, just days after learning a new defense. He finished with six tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss. The number that tells the real story comes from Next Gen Stats. With Simmons on the field, the Seahawks averaged 3.0 yards a play. In the eight snaps he sat, they averaged 13.3.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen says that’s no accident. “I think he raises the level of everybody on the field so that’s a positive thing,” Allen said. He added that Simmons is “the consummate professional” who knew exactly what to do, so the defense wasn’t handcuffed in the playbook. With a full week to game plan, Allen sees more ways to put him in position “where he can really create some stuff for us.”
What sold Allen in the first place wasn’t only the physical tools. “His football character bleeds off the tape,” he said. “It bled off the tape in Tennessee. It bled off the tape the other night in Seattle.” Allen’s explanation for the ripple effect was simple. When your best players practice and prepare the way Simmons does, the others “don’t have a choice but to raise” their level.
Head coach Ben Johnson looks at it from the other side of the ball. “It’s a tremendous amount,” Johnson said when asked how much attention an offense must give a player like Simmons, comparing him to Tampa Bay’s Vita Vea and Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby. Johnson said you “felt it on the sideline” Monday, and called elevating the people around you “the ultimate compliment you can give a player.”
I asked Johnson on Friday about Simmons’ effect on the team in the short time he’s been here. “It’s been fairly dramatic,” he said. “You saw it within the game last week.” But he kept the focus on consistency. Bringing “that same juice and energy throughout the week and into the game” is what he calls “really what great teams do.” Johnson added that the short week is a different challenge and the team doesn’t feel “quite as fresh” as it did coming off extended days off, but he pointed out they handled it well a couple of weeks ago.
Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower says the attention follows Simmons everywhere. “You see it on defense, you see it on special teams, you’ve got to know where he is,” Hightower said. “I’m glad he’s on our side.”
I caught up with Simmons this week and asked if the past several days have felt like a whirlwind. “Of course it’s definitely been a whirlwind,” he said. “Getting traded on a Thursday morning and having to come here and try to learn the new game plan, learn new teammates, and get ready also to play some football on Monday night.” He treated it as part of the job. “I can say it’s part of our job,” Simmons said. “Just being a pro.”
His first priority is fitting in. “I want to get to know my teammates,” he said. “I want to get them to trust me as fast as I can.” He sees a locker room that makes that easy. “It’s a great locker room,” Simmons said. “I feel like when you have a great locker room, that’s where it starts at. Great leaders in this locker room all the way around, from top to bottom.” He singled out Bears president Kevin Warren, whom he said he knew before he arrived. He also credited Johnson for the culture. “Before I even got here you could sense the culture that he’s trying to build around here, and I was bought in from the time I walked in through the door.”
To Simmons, it comes down to the people around him. “To be able to go to war with these guys, that’s my goal,” he said, “to continue to learn them and continue to try to show them who I am as a person. I’m not just a football player.”
Quarterback Caleb Williams has the best view of what Simmons is like in the locker room. He’s also the only one who has actually lined up against him. “He’s been the best (defensive) tackle for the past couple of years. If not number one, number two, and I’d say number one,” Williams said. He recalled the trash talking from his days as an opponent. Then came the story that says the most. Williams had told the team to clean up after the game, and Simmons, who wasn’t even there when he said it, did it anyway. “He’s cleaning up the whole locker room, offense and defensive side,” Williams said. “That’s who he is.”
Williams has also given Simmons a new nickname. I asked where “El Jefe” comes from. “That was a Caleb thing,” Simmons said. “Caleb started that.” In Tennessee, he was known as “Big Jeff.”
Now comes a different kind of test, and it cuts both ways. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5) visit Soldier Field on Sunday night with the league’s best rushing attack at 1,349 yards, or 168.6 a game. Last week they ran for a franchise-record 324 yards in a 16-0 win over Atlanta without completing a pass. The Bears (6-2) rank third in rushing yards and have 17 rushing touchdowns, the most among the league’s top six rushing teams.
Defense is where it gets interesting. Tampa Bay also leads the league against the run at 80.0 yards a game, with the Bears third at 86.8. Something has to give.
Running back D’Andre Swift, who ran 27 times for three touchdowns in Seattle, knows it will be a tough night. Asked about Tampa Bay’s run defense, he called it “very well coached” and said, “I would say they play well together. A fast flowing defense. They have talent at every level. We have our work cut out for us.”
If neither team can run, somebody has to throw it, and that’s where the Bears’ secondary injuries come in. The loss of safety Coby Bryant hurt especially. The Bears signed the former Seahawk to a three-year, $40 million deal to help replace safeties Kevin Byard III and Jaquan Brisker, who both departed after 2025, and he went on injured reserve after knee surgery in August. He isn’t likely to return until December or the postseason. The players filling in for him simply aren’t at his level. Depth defensive back Dallis Flowers also landed on injured reserve, and nickel corner Kyler Gordon has dealt with a calf injury. Tampa Bay’s pass defense ranks ninth, allowing 205.9 yards a game, and its 12 interceptions lead the group of the league’s top ten pass defenses. So the Bucs could force the issue if Chicago’s defensive line doesn’t get to Baker Mayfield.
But Caleb Williams just picked apart Seattle, the league’s second-ranked pass defense at 156.0 yards a game, going 24 of 34 for 247 yards and a touchdown. And the Bucs just played a whole game without completing a pass. Simmons and the front four will have a say in whether they can do it again.
Simmons is already looking ahead. “My theme is, it’s a short week,” he said. “Just gonna have to try to flip the page.” He has also started studying the Bucs’ offensive line. “I already started looking up who the offensive line is,” he said, and he expects “a good test.”
Simply put, Sunday night could come down to which team’s weak spot gets exposed first.
How to watch. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. Central on NBC, with Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark on the call. The radio crew includes Jeff Joniak, Tom Thayer and Jason McKie on ESPN 1000. More Bears coverage is always on SRN Broadcasting.
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of Claude at the direction of the author who made all final edits.
